Why Kindiki should not dance to the tunes of contemporary Rasputins

A month ago, social media sleuths forced Deputy President Kithure Kindiki to resurface after claiming he had been cast adrift. His momentary absence from the public limelight raised eyebrows. 

Many wondered whether he had chosen a leadership style far removed from the usual fawning expected of a deputy president. Others wondered if there was trouble in paradise so soon. 

Kindiki later attended a few presidential functions for optics before settling on his new assignment; cutting Gachagua down to size. To date, there is not much Kindiki has done to write home about, except praise the president effusively and host delegations whose main agenda appears to be Gachagua.

Kindiki is at that point one realises certain things lose their allure once acquired. The deputy presidency is not for non-conformists, independent minded individuals, more so, intellectuals desirous of playing by the rule book. Those who try find themselves hemmed in by excitable underlings who exercise undonated power through proximity to the president. 

Three levels of power brokers; the Cabinet, kitchen Cabinet, and the inner power sanctum, often compete for the president’s attention in their power play games. The inner sanctum is normally under the command of a consigliere, or a Rasputin. Gregory Rasputin, alias the mad monk, exerted undue influence on Tsar Nicholas II of Russia until his assassination in 1916. The latter, mostly an assortment of illiterate and semi-literate fellows, appears to carry more weight with the president. 

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua fell victim to these power brokers, but unlike previous disgraced vice presidents who chose to quietly fade into the shadows, Gachagua is still in the ring throwing punches. He is giving it back to Ruto in small doses designed to incrementally discredit his former boss. His confidence level as he unflinchingly takes on a government that has lost credibility and survives by brawn is impressive. 

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Riggy G could be having the ace card up his sleeve, which makes him so bold. Unfazed by the prospects of staying out in political Siberia for a decade, he is determined to exact his pound of flesh by turning the mountain away from Ruto. Sceptics don’t believe he can, but there are indications of a ponderous move. 

Proof lies in Ruto’s attempted enlistment of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s help and deliberate act of upending the regional and ethnic balancing requirement in public appointments to win back the Kikuyu people’s support. Ruto’s intensified regional visits, even as he continues to face hostility, signal alarm.

Kindiki finds himself at a crossroads, which should lead him into having some honest self-talk. Should he play to the gallery by staying the course and become a pariah at home, or all politics being local, go with his kinsmen at the expense of the deputy presidency? 

There is no reason Kindiki should succumb to manipulation by a few individuals who are unfit to tie his shoestrings in the first place. At the end of the day, he will take blame or praise as the man in charge when things either happened or failed to happen. If he is being forced to dance to a tune played by invisible instrumentalists, the honorable thing to do is call it quits on principle. There is a precedent to this; the resignation of John Calhoun as US Vice President on December 28, 1832. 

Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson differed on many things, especially high taxes. This resulted in Calhoun getting isolated politically, just like it could be happening to Kindiki. Rather than endure humiliation and isolation, Calhoun resigned and took up the lesser seat of Senator, South Carolina. It should not be lost on Kindiki that politics conflicts with intellectualism, that the former draws succour from propaganda, emotional blackmail, and ideological polarisation. 

If Kindiki surrenders to the Rasputins and abandons rationality that comes with the superior education he boasts, just to keep the DP title, it will be a slight to academia.